Tsunami

I sais a couple a weeks ago that Danny was your best bet, and pleased to hear he has now got the place. He will do well for you but needs to be given a bit of time to get fully up to speed, which he will do. We got him before he was ready unfortunately, but with Stevie R in your ranks he will be in good hands and will make a mockery of a 2 average.

Yes, there are many circumstances of Riders being owed money and these matters get resolved. As has been said you only need to have a run of rain offs and you can be in trouble . One year we had no meetings at home in a June, which meant no income, but we came to an agreement with the captain and the team, that the 4 away meetings would be paid progressively through the following months. It was all a matter of trust that worked for us. One year a rider was paid all his wages, but his crippling flights that year that we were responsible for, but the rider did not actually pay(already back in his country). It was agreed to pay him his flights at the end of the year and they were paid. He returned the next year as well. One other situation is when a sponsor undertakes to make payments, in addition to his clubs wages, and the sponsor doesn't pay up. It is a club debt but not really the responsibility of the actual club. When clubs that owe money go bust, the riders owed money are paid out of the bond held by the BSPA, but at a standard rate which is a lot less that their contract rate.

One of the worse outcomes of FREE tickets is when longstanding fans come through the gates clutching a free ticket and not wanting to understand the reason why the free tickets are used. The worst case I encountered was when fee tickets were given to a Boys Club football team and with duplications being made we suddenly found the invitation had been extended by them to the rest of the teams in the league. In addition someone stood outside the gates giving extra free to existing fans. That was in the late 1998/9's which resulted in about 700 kids running wild and a lot was learnt by us that night. As it happened it was one on the last meetings that year, so if any of the new fans wanted to return it would have had to being the following year, so it really had no benefit to us.

Yes. I had thought of that before. There is nothing stopping us to getting a short term signing whist looking for the emergence of a rider possibly dropped from a Polish squad, or a new rider being found whose circumstances have changed(dropped by a British club perhaps). It is even possible to have a series of short term signings to cover riders available to the UK because of gaps in their leagues such as Sweden and Denmark. I am sure George will be doing his best to get a decent pair of riders, even though he might have an eye on future developments.

You can add Newcastle to that list as well. He helped others like local lad Mike Watkin, and a lot of the riders we signed had the same nationality or were friends of Ivan. Still very fond of Newcastle and every time he came into the country he made a beeline to visit our track, and just used to appear without being announced, have a chat with the Kiwis and disappear before the end of the meeting, and go and see a local family that he was associated with from his time with us. Having a Geordie mechanic, Gordon Stobbs, I asked him if he could get Ivan to come along to my training school on the Sunday afternoon. He had about 4 other events to go to, but sure enough halfway through our session in walked Ivan, and he proceeded to give a lesson in riding and how to train a rider. Never forgot his roots and the young riders, including Liam Carr, will always remember being tutored by Ivan. Pictures of Ivan and the young riders are on the Newcastle Training group Facebook account.

I am sure if there was a possible decent Dane wanting a ride we would have had him by now.

It certainly wouldn't be up to me to tell her.

Very few Premier League Football managers will attend the FA Cup final at Wembley. Coincidence is both meetings/matches are on the tele.

Send for Jesper I say. I was with him this morning and he looked fit enough. Dickie Juul as the makeweight.

Josh is riding for Lodz in 2018.

He certainly did and often built and signed before the AGM, and confirmation of the points limit for the following year. You could always tell the teams with all of it's riders signed, as they were desperate for say 43 or 45 points. Glum faces and urgent phone calls when it was voted to have 42.50

Did I not see you with a large cup that was recognition for you, just a few weeks ago. Maybe it was presented at the MP's Speedway group late last autumn ?.

You'll be toast when I meet you.

Had to be Sunblest and thick.

Yes, I know who were involved as well. If you remember they had placed a mattress against the facing wall and they certainly needed it. The same crew got a canoe attached to the back of a Transit and rode around the streets in the West End at night as if it was a sledge. CRAZY.

Would imaging that Sheffield will be allowed a facility till Josh returns. No re-declaration.

Thank goodness for that. We can't have our supermen suffocating on a plastic bag can we.

2 The fact that Ged made some serious money from the Holder deal also sticks in my throat. You should not be allowed to gain from breaking the agreed rules of the BSPA, and the SCB did speedway no favours by setting a bad precedent. Look forward to chances where promotions can break a rule, and pocket good money, and everyone condemns on here the practice and blames the BSPA.(Only in speedway) The fact that Peterborough picked up two trophies isn't relevant. They were won on the track, fact. 3 For a long time now, there has been an outpouring for an Independant person, or team, to oversee the running of Speedway. Barry Hearn, Richard Branson, etc, were mentioned and others tried to explain how such independance could operate and how could be funded. All attempts failed and there didn't seem to be an alternative. Recent events involving Neil Vatcher and the SCB, have showed that they can provide an independence that people want in the sport and I welcome their new interference. I have said it before somewhere on here, that they could be what we are looking for, and recent decisions, whilst not agreeing with the big one(Holdergate fine), at least shows that the BSPA have now to become more accountable and I agree that that is and can be a good thing. The visa situation now seems under control, BSPA realise they are being overseen, so we might see a transparency that everyone wants.

Lots of points there Chris, some of which I will challenge. Others I will either PM you or discuss them when we next meet. The ruling might have been passed at the AGM but would have been known weeks before at the PreAGM meeting, so the decision could have been pre-empted. The decision would have been made with the best intentions of clarifying who could drop down, but unfortunately for Kennett and Nicholls they had no Championship average to fall back on, like say Harris. Presumably the ruling was for genuine stabilisation between the two leagues and that was the AGM decision. That's the way an organisation operates cos it is the ruling body for the sport. To say a member in a 'closed shop' can't challenge things is rather ignoring reality. All matters are discussed, voted for and a decision arrived at, and in many cases by a majority vote as few things are unanimous. That's how all committees generally operate. The difference in this case is the legality of that decision. The BSPA, obviously having made the decision, thought it was legal and enforceable, and therefore would have tried to uphold it. When faced by objections from the SCB and a legal challenge, they had no alternative to overturn their own decision. That is not as you say "incompetence, viciousness or both" unless you are preprogrammed to the mantra that the organisation "deserves at least some of the odium and criticism it gets". I have no information to what you allude to with the IOW matters, but I would have thought that generally within the BSPA ranks and other fans that Barry and Martin, their efforts have been applauded and are in the vest interest of the continuance of our sport. The fact that Barry has just won an award just recently would suggest your 'jealousy' tag may be a bit offline. You say Ged was 'fined heavily'. Hmmm. Yes he was by the BSPA to the tune of £28K, which coincided with the amount of what he received by breaking rules of the organisation, which he signed before the season started as agreeing to uphold the rules of he organisation. Everyone seemed to think that was rather relevant and justified. In the subsequent review by the SCB, that fine was cancelled and replaced to about £1k and scrubbed the free meeting I believe. Who thinks that the SCB decision was better or more appropriate than the original one from the BSPA. I think the BSPA got it spot on and I am disappointed in the level of the SCB revised fine. So we have rules that get broken and Ged makes a profit of about £26k is a punishment ? Not right. Rob, who you have championed before for his style and achievements with the Scunny track, was stupid to do what he did. No argument with that. It is not unprecedented but cannot be accepted under any circumstances. There has to have been some review of his actions and maybe his warning or punishment has not been published, I don't know. But what I do now is that that meeting was under the control of the referee acting for the SCB, and it is them not the BSPA to take any appropriate action. if you accept the SCB acted according regarding the reversing of an illegal decision with the over 6 rule, I would hope you will also hold a similar view regarding the view that the SCB with Rob's actions. As I said earlier, there are things I can't put on here as you will understand. Will be in touch.

The reports I have had back about how his sessions have gone is very positive, but thats like racing on your own without the hurly burley of normal racing. One thing I am pleased about is he hasn't signed for us, as the pressure on him with his father a promoter would be immense and not fair.

Pies haven't arrived ?

Steve has taken a great interest in Danny whilst they were both at Newcastle. He has worked hard on Danny's gating and has rode together with him. I would say with Steve's influence, it a betting cert it is Danny, and he is your best choice.

Always good to hear you so enthusiastic Carl. Hope you and us Diamonds have a good year.

Remember that well, Jason was turned around at the start gate. Poor weather for August wasn't it.

Nothing to do with cost cutting, Our points were used on a top heavy team with Lambert and Stevie W at the top, and after Danny Phillips got hurt, just prior to getting a 4.5 average, we had to go with the best of what was left.